Young correspondent finds life's exclamation point

Sept. 23, 2013

Updated 3:49 p.m.

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In 2008, when this photo was shot, Devyn Bisson was 15 and about to surf for the first time since suffering a severe neck injury. Today, she's studying film at Chapman University, something she says she might not be doing if she hadn't made friends with a 90-year-old woman who became her mentor. CHRISTINA HOUSE, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

In 2008, when this photo was shot, Devyn Bisson was 15 and about to surf for the first time since suffering a severe neck injury. Today, she's studying film at Chapman University, something she says she might not be doing if she hadn't made friends with a 90-year-old woman who became her mentor. CHRISTINA HOUSE, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

MAIL ME A LETTER:

Project 88 began when I bought a 1950s era Smith-Corona 88 typewriter on eBay. Eighty-eight is the number of characters it produces. If you are so inspired, write to me. If you use a typewriter, great. If not, use a computer, a pen, a quill or a chisel and slate. The point is to communicate. Try to avoid angry topics (maintaining civility is the only way this will work), and I'll try to write back.

My mailing address:

Keith Sharon

Orange County Register

625 N. Grand Ave.

Santa Ana, CA 92701

This is how I described her in 2008 – “Devyn Bisson was the kind of 15-year-old that we want all 15-year-olds to be — bright, athletic, enthusiastic, a bundle of bounce.”

She’s 21 now, and the letter I received from her in August is one giant exclamation point. Instead of beginning with the traditional “Dear Keith,” she started like this: “Keith!!” Her zest for life drips off the pages.

I met Devyn when she was in the midst of an incredible journey. She had been a Junior Lifeguard in Huntington Beach and a water polo player at Huntington Beach High, and she had applied to become a volunteer in the program Life Rolls On, a foundation that supports children with spinal cord injuries.

Days after she sent that volunteer application, she was surfing when a wave-tossed surfboard hit her in the neck. She suffered a partial tear of her spinal cord between her C-3 and C-4 vertebrae. Luckily, the tear wasn’t severe enough to require surgery. She wore a neck brace for three months. But her days in the ocean or in the pool seemed to be over.

She started a fundraising club for Life Rolls On at her high school.

That was 2008.

Since then, Devyn wrote, life didn’t always go as she planned. Financial trouble forced her to temporarily scrap her plans for a four-year university. She was depressed. “I was lost as to what to do next, and quite frankly had lost a bit of the spirit and purpose my soul has always carried,” she wrote.

That’s when she met Violet Cowden at a luncheon for The Ninety-Nines, a women’s flying organization. Vi, who was 91 at the time (and a “firecracker,” Devyn wrote), had been a pilot. Vi knew she wanted to fly before she knew what planes were, Devyn wrote. She scratched her phone number onto a Sweet-N-Low packet and told Devyn to give her a call.

It took two years for Devyn, a top-notch procrastinator, to call her back. But when she did, Vi invited her over for tea.

Devyn remembers the frail Vi asking her a specific question. “What is it you want?”

“I exclaimed I couldn’t live without completing my full circle at the beach,” Devyn wrote. “Ever since that day, Violet Cowden has forever been marked in my life as the woman who told me to say YES to my dreams, to the truth of my desires, and to all that I could be.”

Devyn wanted to be a Junior Lifeguard Instructor (she always capitalizes that title).

After a couple of years of trying, Devyn finally got her college situation settled. She was accepted into film school at Chapman University. She just recently finished filming a documentary in Africa. She would call Vi and tell her of every success. But shortly after starting at Chapman, Violet Cowden died at the age of 94. Since then, Devyn said Vi’s influence impacts her every day.

Devyn was sad this summer when she couldn’t tell Vi about her most recent success. After 180 hours spent at the beach qualifying, the girl who nearly broke her neck in the water five years ago was named Junior Lifeguard Instructor in Huntington Beach.

She completed the summer session in August. One of her students told her, “Thank you for pushing me to do my best in everything I accomplish in life.”

Devyn had a quote from Vi (and others) hanging in her dorm room, “We’ve come a long way baby.”

Here’s the thing about Devyn: After spending a few hours with her years ago, I knew she’d conquer whatever she felt needed conquering. I’m the dad of teenagers, and I know them well. This kid was special.

All she needed was a little guidance from Vi.

Now I’ve got to write back to Devyn and find out more about her filmmaking career.

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